Stay Safe On Holidays Using Fireworks

by Irwin J. Kash, MD

On any other day of the year, would you hand your child matches or a flaming candle to play with? Probably, a hard no.

You work so hard all year long to keep your child safe…. Don’t let a National Holiday mess with your common sense.

Lighting fireworks in the backyard or nearby field might seem like a festive way to entertain the kids. However, thousands of people–most of them children, teens and young adults–are injured each year while using fireworks. Most of these injuries happen in the month around the 4th of July.

This year, help ke​ep the holiday fun and safe by leaving any fireworks to trained professionals.

Fireworks

Safer ways to celebrate

View from a safe distance. While there may be fewer public firework displays this year, some communities are bringing them back with COVID-19 vaccines now available for ages 12 and up. If your children are too young to get the COVID-19 vaccine, be sure to stay a safe physical distance at public gatherings. Anyone over age 2 who is not vaccinated should wear a mask​ to avoid the spread of COVID-19. This is especially true with the highly contagious Delta variant of COVID-19 circulating this summer.

Wave a flag instead of a sparkler. Sparklers may seem relatively harmless, as fireworks go. But nearly half of fireworks injuries to children under age 5 are related to sparklers. Surprising? Consider this:

  • Sparklers burn at an extremely high heat: 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit—hot enough to melt some metals.
  • Sparks can ignite clothing on fire and cause eye injuries.
  • Touching a lit sparkler to skin can result in third degree burns.

There were about 900 emergency department-treated injuries associated with sparklers in 2020. Roughly 1,600 more injuries were related to firecrackers, 600 to Roman candles, and 600 more to bottle rockets and other rockets.

Protect your child’s hearing. Fireworks and firecrackers can be as loud as 150 decibels—a lot louder than what’s considered a safe listening level (75–80 decibels). At close distance, even one loud burst is enough to cause some permanent hearing loss, according to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Stay at least 500 feet away from the fireworks launch site.

Remember

Even if fireworks are legal to purchase and use in your community, they are not safe around children. Talk with your pediatrician if you have any questions about safely enjoying fireworks displays.

More Information